While we plan to keep our ears open for the exciting new projects of 2011, there’s some acts we’ve already declared winners. Here’s a short list gathered from various staff members:

+ Anything Janelle Monáe related
+ the sophomore album from Adele, 21, including “Rolling in the Deep” and studio footage
+ Plan BUS debut of live show and The Defamation of Strickland Banks
+ New Nneka
+ Jessie J - Who You Are and everything she does on YouTube
+ Nikki & Rich to finally release Everything + Estelle to release All of Me
+ Jean Grae – Cake or Death from Blacksmith Records
+ Jack Splash – to show us the Future Of The Funk+ Wilder Zoby‘s solo EP (snippet)+ Little Shalimar album
+ Melanie Fiona – The MF Life+ more Kinky Notti videos like this, plus a full-length album+ Cubik Zirconia album
+ whatever Georgia Anne Muldrow does with Some Otha Ship Connect+ Alice Russell & Quantic on Tru-Thoughts+ wild new dance moves from Rye Rye and her album Go! Pop! Bang!+ The Avalanches’ 2nd album (plus all the promo mixtapes they’re going to (re)release)
+ Induce full-length & remixes
+ Ellie Goulding to finally release Lights and more remixes
+ the solo return of Marsha Ambrosious, Late Nights & Early Mornings+ the self-titled debut of Hope+ Jamiroquai to return to the US, possibly by helicopter+ Laura Izibor
+ more solo work from Q-Tip and definitely more on the film+ the next installment from Esperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society+ Lykki Li
+ Talib Kweli
+ Lupe Fiasco obviously
+ for Shawn Lee to open the gates to his World of Funk
+ another heater from Eric Roberson as a follow-up his Grammy-nomination
+ for Mocean Worker to keep us in motion with his next album
+ the debut LP from Dego, the acclaimed Silhouette Brown producer
+ for Ancient Astronauts to embark on a journey Into Bass and Time
+ more from Coco / I Blame Coco with The Constant
+ new album from Toro y Moi
+ and Crookers new album